A. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates generally to adjustable utility racks for pickup trucks and similar vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to such utility racks that removably mount to the top of the truck's bedrails without requiring drilling or other modifications to the truck, including the bedrails, and which are easily installed and removed. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to such utility racks that have a removable component that can be utilized on the ground as a sawhorse.
B. Background
As is generally known, many people utilize pickup trucks and similar vehicles for transporting work supplies, sporting equipment and other materials. Although pickup trucks generally have a rear cargo area that is suitable for carry a variety of materials, many people prefer to utilize a utility rack to carry some of these materials. The use of a utility rack provides additional carrying capacity for the pickup truck and frees up the rear cargo area to carry larger or heavier weight materials. With regard to certain elongated or oversized materials, the use of a rack assembly is a necessity to prevent these materials from substantially extending beyond the rear of the vehicle or from being carried in an unbalanced condition (i.e., long ladders, canoes, pipes, wood or steel members and the like). Most utility racks allow these longer materials to be carried in a manner that extends the materials over the cab portion of the pickup truck.
The prior art discloses a wide variety of utility racks suitable for use with pickup trucks and similar vehicles. The typical pickup truck configured utility rack comprises a number of interconnected frame members that form the frame portion of the rack. Some of the known racks utilize frame members that are fixedly connected to each other, such as by welding or riveting, while other racks have frame members that are connected with bolts, screws and other removable connectors. Most known utility racks mount to the pickup truck by mechanisms that require drilling, welding or other modifications to the horizontally displaced load bearing bed and/or the upstanding forward wall, sidewalls and rear tailgate portions of the rear cargo area. Other racks utilize various clamping mechanisms to clamp the frame to the pickup truck or utilize connectors that are configured to being received in one or more stake pockets that are commonly disposed on the sidewall bedrails (i.e., the generally shaped, upper most portion of the sidewalls). For the typical utility rack, at least a portion of the frame rests on and is supported by the pickup truck's bedrails. Unfortunately, because the uppermost edge of some bedrails are not horizontally configured, the utility rack frame ends up sitting at an undesirable angle that can create load bearing and material carrying problems for the rack user. To resist collapse and dislodging of the rack off the pickup truck due to shearing loads, the typical utility rack require heavier, weight frame members to provide the necessary support and carry the desired loads.
A number of prior art patents describe different configurations for pickup truck utility racks that are adaptable for carry various materials, including elongated or oversized materials, above the bed of a pickup truck. For instance, the prior art includes a number of utility racks that are bolted or otherwise attached to a pickup truck with one or more holes drilled in the pickup truck, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,557,917 to Colcombe, U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,849 to Carter, U.S. Pat. No. D436,915 to Burger, U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,324 to Griffen and U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,543 to Lewis. The patents to Carter and Lewis also show that it is known to weld a part of the utility rack frame directly to the pickup truck. Each of these patents require modification to the pickup truck, a configuration many pickup truck owners find to be unacceptable. Other prior art pickup truck racks are configured to utilize one or more stake pockets, either to receive a frame member directly or with the use of stake pocket anchors, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,731 to Burger, U.S. Pat. No. D444,446 to Carter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,905 to Moore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,791 to Sulzer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,337 to McDaniel, U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,131 to Plournoy, Jr., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,170 to Raya. Some of these patents, such as those to Sulzer and Raya, disclose the additional use of bolts, with holes drilled into the truck, and clamps to further secure the fame to the truck bedrail. Other patents disclose the utility racks that require at least one component to be mounted to the truck bed floor or sidewall, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,787 to Knaack et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,046 to De Freze and U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,262 to Brunel. A few patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,106 to Dutton (FIG. 7) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,540 to James, disclose the use of clamping members to clamp a portion of the pickup truck frame to the bedrail of the pickup truck.
Although the prior art discloses a number of utility racks for use with pickup trucks and the like, there are certain characteristics of these racks that limit their complete acceptance. For instance, some of these utility racks are not adaptable to different sized rear cargo areas or, if adaptable, only adaptable in a very limited range of sizes. Those utility racks that fixedly mount to the pickup truck reduce the flexibility of the truck owner or user for utilizing the rear cargo area for certain uses, such as carrying a camper shell or certain sized materials. In addition, those utility racks that have frame members fixedly attached to each other are generally not easy to install on or remove from the pickup truck. Even some of the utility racks that are configured to be taken on and off the pickup truck when desired are not necessarily easy to handle or install and remove, generally due to the size and/or weight of the individual frame members. Those utility racks that rely on engagement with or other use of the stake pocket are limited to those pickup trucks that have such components and, when used, foreclose the ability of the pickup truck user to utilize the stake pocket for other purposes. No known utility racks have a component which can be removed from the pickup truck and directly utilized as a sawhorse. What is needed, therefore, is a pickup truck utility rack that is easily installed and removed from a pickup truck without requiring the use of holes drilled in or other modifications made to the truck, adaptable to a range of different sized rear cargo areas, adaptable to bedrails that are not horizontal (relative to the truck bed) and which has a frame configured to sufficient support the desired loads with relatively lighter weight components. In addition, it is desirable that the pickup truck rack include at least one removable component that can be easily removed from the pickup truck and utilized on the ground as a sawhorse.